Hi all, we've been tent camping in France for the last ten years, and have also driven from Calais to Spain, so we're used to the distances etc, however we're considering buying a caravan next year, which we'll probably take to France after a few practice runs in the UK.
My question is, does anyone know how many overnights would be best for getting to northern Croatia, as we're considering this for 2019 (I know, ages away, but I like to plan!) We usually do the southern Ardeche/western Provence with one overnight from Calais, but that's with a car and roofbox, and either one or two overnights on the way back.
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Well google maps reckons that if you go Strasbourg, Stuttgart, Munich, Salzburg and across Slovenia are looking at 17 hours non stop. Add stops, and towing and you must realistically be looking at three stops, I'd have thought? And that will be all day driving. Depends how you want to play it -taking your time to see everything on the way, or head down and get there asap.
We have done it in with two night's stop in the past but never again!
We usually take 4 nights which gives us a leisurely drive of about 4 to 5 hours driving a day.
Though we aren't towing we don't rush and stick to about 60mph. However, depending on the size of your caravan you may be limited to lower driving speeds so you need to keep this in mind. The speed limits can be found here. You'll also have to allow for the time needed get to your overnight destinations and for setting up/taking down the rig, unless you plan to stay in hotels on the way.
We have done it twice and can highly recommend the Istrian Coast.Beautiful coastline and lovely people.
We did it once with three stops, 2 in Germany and one in Austria. the second time with 2 in Germany, 1 in Austria and one in Slovenia, another country we can recommend.I,m sure you would enjoy it .We did meet a couple once who did it from Calais to Fazana in one go but they were younger and it isn,t something we would even think about.
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The last time we went to Croatia we did it with four stops, but that was using the Newcastle - Ijmuiden ferry, so our first night was in the Netherlands. Then Germany, Austria, Slovenia, and into Croatia.
If you're not in a hurry to arrive it's well worth stopping for a couple of nights or more in Salzburg. In Slovenia we stayed at Ljubljana, an interesting and lively city, on the way down, and Lake Bled (gorgeous scenery) on the way back - again, worth spending a couple of nights.
------------- Il vaut mieux vivre ses reves que rever sa vie
Thanks for the information...only very much in the planning stages at the moment, and don't even have a caravan yet, so may not actually happen, but interesting to see that there are quite a few people who do/have done it.
We've done Calais to Alcossebre in Spain before, which is about the same drive time on paper I think, with 2 overnight stops...but it seems 3 or 4 would be more sensible for Croatia....more planning needed methinks!
We have done the journey to Croatia twice (family of five towing a trailer). Not forgetting that the journey to Dover can be knackering...we firstly did it with one night stops in Belgium and then Munich and then 3 days just outside Salzburg (which was lovely and well worth a visit). We then had a 6 hour or so drive to Croatia from Salzburg. That was really (though relatively) very pleasant, The second time we drove it was pouring down so the anticipated stops in Belgium, then Germany didn't happen and we drove solidly from Calais to Salzburg and stopped in a motorway hotel. We arrived in Croatia the next day and it took me about a week to recover! Part of the consideration is how best to navigate the Tauern and Karawanka tunnel systems in Austria and Slovenia. If you don't arrive at the Tauern tunnel before 9-30 am you may well be in for a long series of waits and it can add immensely to your journey time and attendant frustrations.
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I would say 3 nights min stopovers if you're traveling from Rugby. When we went to Istria (from Manchester) we had a night on the Hull-Rotterdam ferry, another in a cheap hotel in southern Germany, and a 3rd on a campsite in Slovenia, before a final 3 hour drive down to Vrsar. I wouldn't want to have done it in less than that.
On paper a lot of journeys look ok but as well all know the reality turns out to be very different. Seemingly little things make a big difference - traffic for a long stretch near Stuttgart was slow through endless roadworks, we crawled at a snail's pace past Munich, and then the border crossing Slovenia into Croatia took forever with queues stretching a mile or two up the road. Only my opinion but I'd say doing it with 2 stopovers would be pushing it, if I was to do it again I'd do min 3 and preferably 4.
Thanks guys...to make it worthwhile then we'd need about three weeks in total, so that's definitely something to consider. I hadn't really factored in border crossings taking longer as France to Spain didn't really have one. And I definitely hadn't considered having to time ourselves for the tunnels, so also very useful information.
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Topic: Croatia with a Caravan?
